Captain America: Brave New World is the fourth entry in that long-running Marvel franchise, as well as being the first to star Anthony Mackie’s Sam Wilson in the lead role rather than Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers. But as much as this new movie is devoted to continuing the story of Captain America in the MCU, it’s also picking up a lot of loose ends from one of the very first MCU movies. Brave New World is practically The Incredible Hulk 2.
From Harrison Ford’s Thunderbolt Ross to Tim Blake Nelson’s The Leader to Liv Tyler’s Betty Ross, let’s break down the history of these MCU characters and why Brave New World is really an Incredible Hulk sequel in all but name.
Tim Blake Nelson’s The Leader
The Incredible Hulk teed up the next big villain in Hulk’s world with the introduction of Tim Blake Nelson’s Samuel Sterns, a tease that is only just now finally paying off in Brave New World. In The Incredible Hulk, Sterns is revealed to be an ally to Norton’s Bruce Banner, working with Banner from afar to help find a cure for the Hulk.
Banner and Sterns finally meet face-to-face in the film, where Banner discovers that Sterns has been a bit overzealous in his experiments with Banner’s gamma-irradiated blood. Sterns is captivated by the idea of their gamma research bringing them scientific acclaim, suggesting that he doesn’t quite have Banner’s sense of ethics. That’s some definite foreshadowing there.
After Banner is taken into custody, Blonsky strongarms Sterns into transforming him into another Hulk. Sterns is injured during Blonsky’s transformation, at which point a sample of Banner’s blood seeps into an open wound on his forehead. Sterns’ head immediately begins to swell and transform.
Comic book fans know that this is where Sterns evolves from ordinary man into The Leader, a gamma-powered villain who is as smart as Hulk is strong. But again, it’s only now in Brave New World that the MCU is finally following up on this twist.
Where has Sterns been all these years? The answer is in a comic book called The Avengers Prelude: Fury’s Big Week, one of the few comics that’s actually canon to the MCU. It shows Black Widow bringing Sterns into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, where he’s presumably remained ever since.
But at some point, Sterns escaped and is now at the center of the conspiracy involving Captain America and President Ross. We don’t know much about his role in the film, as Nelson has been all but absent from the marketing so far. We can probably assume that Sterns had something to do with Ross’ transformation into Red Hulk, though, since that was the case in the comics.
Sterns could also have his sights set on adamantium. We know Brave New World will be introducing that iconic, unbreakable metal to the MCU, likely sparking a new arms race as the global powers clash over possession of this invaluable resource. The Leader may see an opportunity to play that conflict to his advantage. Whatever his plans, as The Leader, Sterns is now superhumanly intelligent, making him a very dangerous foe for Captain America and Falcon (Danny Ramirez) to contend with.
Liv Tyler’s Betty Ross
Nelson’s Samuel Sterns isn’t the only The Incredible Hulk character making a long overdue return appearance in Brave New World. This is also the first time we’ll see Liv Tyler reprise the role of Ross’ daughter Betty in the MCU.
As established in The Incredible Hulk, Betty and Bruce Banner originally met and fell in love in college. She later joined Banner as a researcher in Project Gamma Pulse, where she created the primer that allowed Banner to survive his exposure to gamma radiation and become the Hulk. Betty was among those injured during Banner’s transformation, sparking her father’s obsessive, Ahab-like hatred of Banner. That obsession has done nothing to help Betty’s already dysfunctional relationship with her father.
By the present-day events of The Incredible Hulk, Betty has mostly moved on and started dating Dr. Leonard Samson (Ty Burrell), though she doesn’t hesitate to rush to Banner’s aid when he resurfaces. Betty does her best to aid her ex-boyfriend in his quest to cure himself of his condition, even as that pits her directly against her father.
Ultimately, fate doesn’t allow Betty and Banner to reconnect for long. He resumes his life as a fugitive and Betty fades out of the MCU spotlight. We don’t know much about her story since then, apart from the fact that Betty is among the many temporarily snapped out of existence by Thanos in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War.
Tyler is finally reprising her role for Brave New World. But as for what role Betty is meant to play in this story, we have no idea. Like The Leader, Betty has been absent from the film’s marketing so far. Will we discover she’s patched things up with her father? She is the daughter of the president now, after all. Will she be called upon for her expertise in gamma research and all things Hulk? Let’s also not forget that Betty herself becomes Red She-Hulk in the comics. Will Brave New World follow suit? We can only hope.
Harrison Ford’s President Ross/Red Hulk
The most obvious sign that Brave New World is actually an Incredible Hulk sequel is that it revolves heavily around Harrison Ford’s Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. Ford is taking over the role from the late William Hurt, who played Ross in a number of MCU movies dating back to 2008.
Ross originally debuted in The Incredible Hulk, serving as one of the main antagonists to Edward Norton’s Bruce Banner. A stoic military man, General Ross oversees Project Gamma Pulse. Banner is led to believe the project revolves around radiation resistance. What he doesn’t know is that Ross is trying to create a modern and more powerful alternative to the WWII-era Super Soldier Serum. When Banner tests his experimental formula on himself, the Hulk is born.
Since that day, Ross has devoted himself to bringing the Hulk under government control by any means necessary, even at the cost of his relationship with his daughter Betty. Ross turns to elite soldier Emil Blonsky (Eli Roth) to help capture the fugitive Banner. Unfortunately, this alliance ends up creating a monster worse than the Hulk.
Ross injects Blonsky with a version of the Super Soldier Serum, transforming him into a Captain America-esque super-soldier. However, Blonsky finds that power addicting, and it’s not long before he forces Sterns to expose him to gamma radiation, becoming the Abomination. After a violent battle in Harlem, Hulk subdues the Abomination. Ross reluctantly allows his nemesis to escape the battlefield, postponing their next showdown for another day.
The final scene in The Incredible Hulk shows a dejected Ross drowning his sorrows at a bar, only to be approached by Robert Downey, Jr.’s Tony Stark. Stark attempts to recruit Ross into the Avengers Initiative, just as Nick Fury approached him in the post-credits scene in 2008’s Iron Man, which had been released just a month before this film.
For the full story on that encounter, though, we have to turn to the 2011 Marvel One-Shot short film “The Consultant.” There, it’s revealed that the World Security Council wants to recruit the Abomination to join the fledgling Avengers, much to the chagrin of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) and Jasper Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernández). Coulson handpicks Stark to meet with Ross specifically because he knows the egotistical Stark will botch the job and Blonsky will remain in prison. Mission un-accomplished.
From there, Ross didn’t reappear in the MCU for years, finally resurfacing in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. By this point, Ross has become the Secretary of Defense and is instrumental in drafting the Sokovia Accords. He hopes to rein in the Avengers and make them accountable to a higher authority.
The ratification of the Sokovia Accords creates a schism in the Avengers, and Ross winds up throwing Captain America’s anti-registration faction in the superhuman prison known as The Raft. It’s not long before Cap breaks his friends out and they become fugitives from the law.
Chronologically speaking, Ross’ next appearance is in 2021’s Black Widow, where he’s seen hunting down Scarlett Johansson’s rogue agent. However, Natasha remains one step ahead of Ross and his troops, leaving him to clean up the wreckage of the Red Room’s floating fortress while she disappears into the wind.
Ross makes a small appearance in Infinity War, where he’s seen trying to maintain order as Thanos’ forces invade Earth and arguing with Don Cheadle’s War Machine. Ross doesn’t have much time to react to Rhodey’s defiance before he and trillions of others are snapped out of existence by Thanos.
Ross, along with the rest of those trillions, is restored to life when the Avengers manage to undo Thanos’ act in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame. Ross can be seen at Tony Stark’s funeral, paying tribute to a man he butted heads with in life.
Now Ross is returning to play a major role in Captain America: Brave New World, with Ford taking over the role. As the movie opens, Ross has recently been elected President of the United States. Given how 2023’s Secret Invasion ended, we can infer that the American public, fearful of the possibility of more alien invaders lurking among them, turned to Ross as a figure with a decorated military record and a strong history of dealing with superhuman and alien threats.
"The Ross that we knew historically, going back to incredible Hulk in 2008, and certainly versions of him that we saw across the years in the MCU, his nickname was Thunderbolt. He had a thunderous temper. He was a guy who hunted Hulks. He was a guy who had this real legacy that could maybe be defined by his anger," director Julius Onah told IGN in a recent interview. "But the man that we're meeting now is a man who is an elder statesman, who's a diplomat, who's turning a new leaf, who sees and understands the errors of his past and wants to do better. And in doing that, initiating the Avengers is because they could be a benefit to the world. So this is a guy who also is looking to reconnect with his estranged daughter. And there was something really great about putting him on this journey of redefining himself as he's also interfacing with the Captain America who's defining himself too."
We’ll see Ross attempt to make peace with Mackie’s Sam Wilson in the film, hoping to usher in a new era of cooperation between the Avengers and the US government. However, Sam will soon find himself drawn into a deep conspiracy after Ross survives an assassination attempt and transforms into the Red Hulk. That’s right - somehow, Ross has turned himself into the very thing he always hated most.
As in the comics, we assume Ross is seeking to protect his country by creating a version of Hulk with more tactical experience and battlefield prowess, even if that means making a Faustian bargain with The Leader. Unlike the comics, however, Ross doesn’t seem overly concerned with hiding the fact that he’s Red Hulk.
But for Ross, protecting his country also means gaining control of adamantium, the newly discovered super-metal that every global power is attempting to weaponize.
"There's so many implications to a new technology like this emerging, and in some ways it ties into why this movie's called Brave New World, a technology that could have both incredibly positive implications and also potentially destructive or negative implications," Onah said. "So it was really exciting for me to be able to be directing and writing a movie where we introduce adamantium to the MCU, and obviously that teases a lot of things that fans are super eager about and it's going to be great. And it's also great to also see the geopolitical implications of it in this story because as a technology, it could have incredibly powerful application for different countries around the world. And then you think about it in a world where vibranium also exists, it's just a very, very rich terrain to play with."
Does the new Captain America have what it takes to unravel this conspiracy and take down a Hulked-out President Ross in the process? But maybe there’s a better question we should be asking…
Where Is The Hulk in Brave New World?
At this point, the only thing stopping Captain America: Brave New World from being called The Incredible Hulk 2 is the fact that Hulk himself is MIA. There’s no indication that Mark Ruffalo’s Bruce Banner has a part to play in this sequel, though we wouldn’t rule out a secret, last-minute cameo appearance. Cap could certainly use the extra muscle when he takes on Red Hulk.
It would certainly make sense to include Banner in some capacity, given how the character’s story has unfolded in the MCU so far. Banner and his alter ego have come up in the world since the events of The Incredible Hulk. Hulk joined the Avengers and gained an aura of respectability, After his self-imposed exile on Sakaar in Thor: Ragnarok and his near-death battle with Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War, Banner has gained a newfound control over his gamma side. Banner and Hulk have essentially merged into a single being with all of Hulk’s strength and all of Banner’s intelligence.
Including Hulk in Brave New World makes even more sense when you consider that he’s one of the only heroes keeping the torch of the Avengers alive right now. If we’ve learned anything from Phases 4 and 5 of the MCU, it’s that Banner and Benedict Wong’s Wong have become the planet’s first line of defense against all threats superhuman and magical. They’re minding the shop at a time when the Avengers have yet to be reformed.
We have to assume that Banner would be interested to know that his old nemesis has suddenly become a Hulk, too, and that Sterns has resurfaced with gamma powers of his own. We’d also like to know what the current state of Banner’s relationship with Betty is these days. Have the two reconnected now that Hulk is a respectable superhero in control of his powers?
For better or worse, it doesn’t appear that Hulk does have a big part to play in Brave New World. Any Banner appearance may be relegated to a post-credits scene, if even that. But it is worth remembering that Banner has his hands full with other matters these days. He’s now a member of a full-fledged family of Hulks. We saw his cousin Jen Walters (Tatiana Maslany) become a superhero lawyer in the She-Hulk series. That show also ended with the reveal that Banner has a gamma-powered son, Skaar, from his time on Sakaar. Banner may be off-world bonding with Skaar, explaining why he isn’t around to help Cap deal with Red Hulk and The Leader.
In that case, we’ll just have to wait until 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday to see Earth’s Mightiest Heroes officially back in action.
Do you think we’ll see Hulk put in an appearance in Brave New World? Vote in our poll and let us know what you think in the comments below.
For more on the future of the Marvel Universe, find out what to expect from Marvel in 2025 and see every Marvel movie and series in development.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
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